Various type chemical processes are commonly carried out in large, stirred vessels which are frequently provided with auxiliary equipment, such as baffles, heat transfer coils which enable heat to be supplied or extracted from the contents of the vessels, and the like. In many cases, however, such processes eventually produce undesirable deposits on the surfaces of the equipment with which the reaction mixtures come into contact. Such deposits interfere with the efficient transfer of heat to and from the interior of the vessels. Further, these deposits have a tendency to deteriorate and to partially fragment resulting in contamination of the reaction mixture and the products produced therefrom. This problem is particularly prevalent in polymerization type reactions, since the deposits, or "build-up", of solid polymer on reactor surfaces, not only interferes with heat transfer, but decreases productivity and adversely affects polymer quality.
This problem is particularly bad in the commercial production of polymers and copolymers of vinyl and vinylidene halides, when polymerized alone or with other vinylidene monomers having a terminal CH.sub.2 .dbd.C&lt; group, or with polymerizable polyolefinic monomers. For example, in the commercial production of vinyl chloride polymers, the same are usually produced in the form of discrete particles by polymerization in aqueous suspension systems. When employing such a polymerization system, the vinyl chloride, and other comonomers when used, are maintained in the form of small discrete droplets by the use of suspending agents and agitation. When the reaction is complete, the resultant polymer is washed and dried. These aqueous suspension system polymerization reactions are usually conducted under pressure in metal reactors equipped with baffles and high speed agitators. However, these suspension systems are often unstable and during the polymerization reaction, vinyl chloride polymer builds up on the interior surfaces of the polymerization reactor, including the surfaces of the baffles and agitator. Obviously, this polymer buildup must be removed since it results in further formation of polymer build-up which in turn results in a crust that adversely affects heat transfer and contaminates the polymer being produced.
The nature of the polymer build-up, or insoluble deposit on the walls of the reactor, is such that in the commercial production of polymers, as described above, it has in the past been standard practice, after each polymerization reaction is completed, to have an operator enter the reactor and scrape the polymer build-up off the walls and off the baffles and agitator. An operation such as this is not only costly, both in labor and down-time of the reactor, but presents potential health hazards as well. While various methods have heretofore been proposed to reduce the amount and nature of polymer build-up on polymerization reactor surfaces, such as solvent cleaning, various hydraulic and mechanical reactor cleaners, and the like none has proved to be the ultimate in polymer build-up removal. That is to say, these various methods and apparatus have done an acceptable job, but there is still room for improvement in this area, particularly from an economic point of view.
Various methods of coating the inner walls of polymerization reactors have heretofore been proposed to reduce polymer build-up thereon. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,946, issued June 13, 1972, Koyanagi et al., there is taught the use of polar organic compounds, including dyes, as coating materials to prevent build-up on polymerization reactor walls. However, the coating is applied to the reactor surfaces from an organic solvent solution thereof. The use of an organic solvent presents difficulties, such as recovery of the organic solvent, contamination of the surrounding atmosphere and most importantly, drying of the surfaces, particularly in large reactors. Therefore, experience has shown that it would be more practical and economical to find a coating that could be applied to said surfaces from an aqueous solution and not have to be dried thereafter.